Greekis an independent branch of theIndo-Europeanfamily of languages. It has the
longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of
written records. Its writing system has been theGreek alphabetfor the majority of its history. The
alphabet arose from thePhoenician scriptand was in turn the basis of theLatin,Cyrillic,Armenian,Coptic,Gothicand many other writing systems.